Dr Brian Iddon MP addresses European Drugs Conference

18th May 2007

Today Dr Brian Iddon MP addressed the second day of the UK /European Symposium on Addictive Disorders (UKESAD) in London.

Speaking on the theme of displacement drug use, Dr Iddon spoke about the growing problem of displacement within the abuse of drugs. As the Government and local enforcement agencies devise policies and act to crack down on certain kinds of drug use, people simply find new substances, whether legal or illegal to abuse.

Dr Iddon said,

“As Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drugs Misuse this is a very important issue for me, so I was pleased to be able to speak at this conference. As the Government begins to draw together its new 10 year National Drug Strategy, I hope they will consider the problem of displacement  and think about the scale of harm that the Royal Society of the Arts drew our attention to when they published their report a few weeks ago. The mechanism for decisions on whether to classify certain drugs has not changed much since the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and I do feel it is vitally important that the Government takes into account recent work done by organisations like the RSA and UK Drugs Policy Commission in addition to the work done in Parliament, for example, the Science and Technology Select Committee Report “Drug Classification: Making a Hash of it” which examined the way drugs are classified in this country when it draws up the National Drug Strategy for the next 10 years shortly.”

Earlier this week Dr Iddon hosted an All Party Parliamentary Drugs Misuse Group meeting in Parliament to launch the beginning of this years’ UKESAD conference. The meeting was addressed by four speakers from America. Then Parliamentarians and experts had a wide-ranging discussion about the variations in treatment options between the UK and the US.

2. The RSA report “Drugs – Facing Facts” was published in March 2007 – further information is available on their website http://www.rsa.org.uk/projects/drugs.asp

3. The Science & Technology Select Committee Report is available here http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmsctech/1031/103102.htm